A top emergency room doctor who worked on the front lines of the coronavirus pandemic in Manhattan took her own life after contracting the virus.
Dr. Lorna Breen was the head of the emergency department at a Manhattan hospital when she contracted Covid-19 after spending hectic days working in the ER.
Breen, 49, died Sunday at her family home in Charlottesville, Virginia, where she’d been staying while recuperating from the disease.
Breen’s father, Philip Breen, said his daughter fell ill with the virus while on the job, but she attempted to return to work after only a week and a half of recuperating.
The hospital ordered her to return home, and her family brought her back to Virginia, where she shot herself in the head with a gun belonging to her retired NYPD dad.
“She was truly in the trenches on the front line,” Philip Breen told the Times.
“Make sure she’s praised as a hero,” he added. “She’s a casualty just as much as anyone else who has died.”
Philip said his daughter did not have a history of psychological problems.
